HUMBOLDT PARK — The West Humboldt Park Development Council has been named a finalist in a national initiative aimed at improving health on the Northwest Side.
The honor was announced Monday by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in partnership with Community Solutions and the Collaborative Health Network with support from the New Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The announcement puts the Council within reach of two years of grant support through the SCALE program — Spreading Community Accelerators through Learning and Evaluation — to help develop community-driven health models across Chicago.
Monday’s 57 grant finalists, selected from close to 200 applicants across the country, will be narrowed to approximately 30 communities by mid-April, according to an announcement for the grant.
“This has been an incredibly competitive selection process that began with hundreds of outstanding communities,” said Soma Stout, principal innovator for SCALE and executive external lead in health improvement for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. “All of the finalists should be incredibly proud of the accomplishment of getting to the finalist stage.”
SCALE communities will seek to improve clients' health outcomes, enact best practices as quickly as possible and become beacons and resources for other communities trying to obtain the best health possible — especially those most vulnerable to poor health due to poverty, violence, or lack of social supports, according to the finalist announcement.
Leaders of the coalition are committed closing equity gaps in West Humboldt Park.
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